Germany’s Steinmeier visits Cuba

Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be in Cuba Thursday and Friday on the first visit to the island by a German foreign minister since German reunification in 1990, his office said.

Following U.S. President Barack Obama’s meeting with Cuban leader Raul Castro in April and Havana’s rapprochement with other states, “a new door has opened,” Steinmeier said in a statement.

Berlin said he would meet his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodríguez and the ministers for economy and culture Thursday and Friday, as well as the Roman Catholic archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino.

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were close ties between the communist governments of Cuba and the former German Democratic Republic, but no foreign minister from the federal German republic has paid an official visit.

German exports to Cuba were worth about €191 million last year, led by machinery, chemical and pharmaceutical goods, while Cuba sold the Germans €33 million worth of goods, with an emphasis on alcoholic beverages and tobacco products. Germany is the third biggest source of tourists visiting Cuba.

Steinmeier said that while “Cuba and the world are converging” there were still major differences of approach in terms of democracy and freedom of the press that had to be resolved.